Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 1:09:26 pm
NPR's Terry Gross interviews historian Sean Wilentz about the resurgence of paranoid John Birch Society ideology on the right wing, led by the main promoter of JBS craziness: Glenn Beck: Drawing On 1950s Extremism? They don't allow embedding of the audio for this interview, but it's worth a listen. We've been ...

Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 11:27:21 am
On Thursday night the Nevada member of the GOP's Crazy Candidate Club, Sharron Angle, met with a hand-picked group of teabaggers behind closed doors and told them (among other things) that sharia law is already taking over America. One of the last questioners asked about "Muslims taking over the U.S.," ...

Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 11:01:24 am
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has found that 71% of Republicans are Tea Party supporters, which should come as no surprise. The Tea Party "movement" has been largely an astroturf operation from the very beginning, a way to legitimize the far right of the GOP. And it's worked, as ...

Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 11:09:45 am
Sharron Angle is just one of the many GOP far right extremists running for office this election, and her latest statements show how far out of the mainstream she really is -- calling autism and maternity benefits "politically correct special interests:" Angle: Insurance mandates are product of government bowing to ...

Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 10:44:40 am
There was a time when openly associating with the cranks, racists, and conspiracy freakazoids of the John Birch Society would have spelled instant disaster for a politician's career. But in today's climate of right wing extremism, the John Birch Society has not only been re-legitimized, it's been welcomed back into the ...

Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 9:02:31 am
Today thousands of angry white people have descended on the National Mall on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, to whine about how they're being persecuted and unfairly maligned, sponsored by a race-baiting lunatic Fox News host who promotes the ideology of the far right ...

Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 11:08:42 am
The New Yorker's Jane Mayer has an excellent piece on right wing billionaires David and Charles Koch, and their $100 million war against President Obama. In 1958, Fred Koch became one of the original members of the John Birch Society, the arch-conservative group known, in part, for a highly skeptical ...

Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 10:44:23 am
The paleo-creepy John Birch Society is congratulating Fox News star Glenn Beck again today, for doing such a good job of promoting their long-discredited conspiracy theories and bigotry: Glenn Beck's John Birch Society News Hour. Quotes from the JBS website: On last night’s TV show Glenn Beck spent most of the ...

Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 5:35:05 pm
I’ve occasionally had differences with the NAACP, but in this case they’re absolutely right — it’s long past time for Tea Party organizers to take a stand against the significant racist element in their movement: NAACP Passes Tea Party Racism Resolution. The resolution was approved in a vote by more ...

Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 3:33:11 pm
The kooks really are taking over conservative news sites now, like an invasion of John Birch pod people. Just published at Townhall.com: an incomprehensible “international banking conspiracy” article by 9/11 Truther and JFK assassination troll Jim Marrs. Sometimes all you can say is, “Wow.”

Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:27:30 am
Nevada Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle says she’s not going to have a political makeover. Republican Sharron Angle said Saturday she won’t change her staunch conservative views to win the U.S. Senate race, although she acknowledged softening some of her rhetoric to avoid giving Sen. Harry Reid and other Democrats ...

Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 9:27:53 am
Here we go. In their desperation to do anything possible to obstruct financial regulatory reform, House Republicans are going to align themselves with the keynote speaker of the John Birch Society’s 50th anniversary convention — Ron Paul: GOPers To Push Fed Audit. House GOPers will make a push to audit ...

Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 11:42:18 am
Nevada Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle, a former member of the completely insane Constitution Party who has written about the dangers of fluoridation (shades of the John Birch Society), is dodging the media. And she has good reason to dodge. Her history is rife with extremism, questionable associations, and bizarre views. ...

Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 11:03:46 am
For the past couple of years as I’ve been writing about the horrible agenda of Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, I’ve noted many times that Beck’s views seem to be derived almost entirely from the hateful, paleo-right wing conspiracy theory world view of the John Birch Society — a group ...

Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 5:06:45 pm
This video playlist from MSNBC contains the complete Chris Matthews feature, “Rise of the New Right.” You can jump to any section by clicking the “Playlist” button that appears at the lower right of the player when you move your mouse over it. Regular LGF readers will notice that almost everything ...

Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 3:36:55 pm
Front and center at the official biennial convention of the Republican Party of Texas: the John Birch Society. (Hat tip: KT.)

Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 11:19:56 am
New GOP Senate candidate from Nevada Sharron Angle is apparently trying to quietly toss the online records of her extreme nativist and John Birch Society-inspired positions down the memory hole. Sharron Angle—Tea Partier, Oath Keepers supporter, anti-fluoride crusader, and new GOP candidate for Senate from Nevada—is already demonstrating her solidarity ...

Mon, May 24, 2010 at 11:48:25 am
At ReligionDispatches, Sarah Posner has some more data on Rand Paul’s crackpot brand of libertarianism, which is inexplicably mixed with fundamentalist Christianity: Rand Paul: We Wouldn’t Need Laws If Everyone Were Christian. Appearing on The Brody File, Rand Paul, who believes that portions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act need ...

Thu, May 20, 2010 at 5:41:26 pm
Not surprising, since Ron’s views on the Civil Rights Act are (at least publicly) even more extreme than Rand’s: Ron Paul Rises to Son’s Defense in Civil Rights Dust-Up. It’s a conspiracy by the left, of course. Default wingnut response to setbacks. Rep. Ron Paul said Thursday the criticism of his ...

Thu, May 20, 2010 at 9:16:45 am
Well, Rand Paul really stepped deep into the muck yesterday with his painful waffling about the Civil Rights Act. The right wing blogosphere is in full-throated excuse-making mode this morning. Even Dave Weigel is desperately trying to spin this as being a “principled libertarian” stance, because as a libertarian himself ...

Wed, May 19, 2010 at 5:45:13 pm
The John Birch Society is exuberant at Rand Paul’s victory; they see it as a vindication of their ideology: Rand Paul Victory. (Google cache link.) Conservative, libertarian, and constitutionalist grassroots activists, who have coalesced to form not one organization, but a collection of like-minded groups collectively called “The Tea Party,” ...

Tue, May 18, 2010 at 5:08:15 pm
CNN is calling the Kentucky primary race for Rand Paul; Paul exploited the tea party connection for all it was worth, but the reality is that this is more of a victory for the Ron Paul populist movement and the resurgence of paranoid John Birch Society-influenced ideology. At this point, you ...

Wed, May 12, 2010 at 9:10:20 am
Isolationist, antisemitic, anti-science, racist, associated with the John Birch Society and prone to believing in conspiracy theories. These are qualities that the Iowa Republican Party seems to find desirable, because they’re enthusiastically embracing Ron Paul’s twisted vision of conservatism: The RPI Revolution? In every election or campaign, there are events and ...

Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 10:03:03 am
Here’s a disturbing report on the rise of the “Patriot” movement, with profiles of 36 of the leaders of this far right antigovernment lunacy, including World Nut Daily’s head loon Joseph Farah, Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, and John Birch Society leader John McManus — all of whom are welcome in ...

Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 10:14:41 am
The Southern Poverty Law Center has a report on the hatred and extremism that has reared its head on the right since the election of Barack Obama: Rage on the Right. And it’s especially relevant after the shootings at the Pentagon yesterday, apparently perpetrated by a virulently anti-government libertarian who drew ...